Personal Growth - How Much is Good for You

For all you film-makers and film-viewers out there - I hope you'll link up and share your thoughts.

Wednesday 30 March 2011

Slim Jim Films in feature development on award winning "Mosa"

The writer Victoria Pilkington-Miksa (class of 2010) has been commissioned by Slim Jim Films to turn her multi award-winning short, "Mosa", into a feature.  Ana Morena will direct.  The budget will be around the Euro 1.5million mark.  A South African/ German co-production is on the cards.
Isaura Barbe-Brown is "Mosa"
http://www.mosafilm.com
http://www.slimjimfilms.com/indevelopment.html

Saturday 26 March 2011

"Men Don't Lie" to shoot with Michael Madsen in April

Michael Madsen
Kat Moon (class of 2011) is co-producing "Men Don't Lie".  It shoots this April with Michael Madsen ("Reservoir Dogs", "Kill Bill") and Jean-Hughes Anglade ("Betty Blue", "La Reine Margot").  Jane Spencer directs, and Lucy Shuttleworth, regular tutor on our programme, has scripted.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424859

Friday 25 March 2011

"Island" starring Natalie Press opens at Soho Curzon, 25th April

Amy Ricker's (class of 2010/11) feature production, "Island" with Natalie Press ("My Summer of Love", & Oscar winning "Wasp") opens at the Curzon Soho, London, on 25th April and goes wide that week.  Her company, Finite Films, is also launching the TV show "Walk Like a Panther" starring Stephen Graham ("Snatch", "This is England") and Kasabian frontman, Tom Meighan.  Broadcast dates to be confirmed next week.

Natalie Press in "Island"
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/3480562/Call-me-Thomas-the-Terror.html
http://www.sabotagetimes.com/tv-film/walk-like-a-panther/
http://www.finitefilmslondon.com/wp/

Thursday 24 March 2011

BBC Films co-produces "Borrowed Time" with Parkville in April

Cecilia Frugiuele (class of 2009) is co-producing "Borrowed Time" through Parkville Pictures in partnership with Film London and BBC Films on the Microwave Scheme.  Jules Bishop is directing.  Production starts in April.
Production still for "Borrowed Time"

http://www.ceciliafrugiuele.com/about-parkville-pictures/

Sunday 13 March 2011

Pilot for Dutch TV wins SFX award

Brian de Vore (class of 2007) won an Award from the Visual Effect Society for Outstanding Effects on his pilot for the TV show, "The Mystery of the Full Moon".
"The Mystery of the Full Moon"
http://www.vimeo.com/8405520

Saturday 12 March 2011

Personal Growth - How Much is Good for You?

Personal Transformation - the internal journey - the character’s arc

Each of these expressions touches on the “need” of a protagonist.  They describe the steps that a character takes to progress towards (or regress away from) a better version of themselves.

One of our key decisions as writers is how to engage with this aspect of narrative structure.
Do we want our characters to change?  If we do, how schematic should those steps be and how much do we need to spoon-feed the audience when we illustrate these steps?  How much change is truly plausible, given that most of us change very little over the course of our entire adult lives?  How much does this “character arc” enrich the impact of our movies?

There are no rules.  The majority of writing “gurus” expend enormous time and energy persuading us that this “personal transformation” is the holy grail of script writing.  But is it?  Watch your favourite movies, read the scripts - make up your own mind.

What follows is a brief introduction to the principles...